efaardvark

Kerbal Space Program. Kind of a NASA simulation, if NASA were staffed by Minions. Always fun, even when my rockets blow up. (Maybe "especially when". ) Some people do amazing things with it. Did ArmA ever get a real linux port?

It was a good anime. Worth a watch if you haven't seen it. I liked the OP..

Looks like Norigami.

What age? I'm pretty sure we'd finished the bronze age by then. I guess it was some time between the iron age and the start of the information age for me.

Sorry, doesn't ring a bell. The only show I remember offhand where someone's blood turns into a weapon was Kyoukai no Kanata. In that one the girl uses her own blood to make weapons though, not a guy. In the first couple episodes the girl, Kuriyama Mirai, is obsessed with killing an immortal boy, Akihito Kanabara, but eventually she gives up and they become friends.

Yeah. Billions and Billions. I was partial to the science fictiony ones like Space Angel and Jonny Quest (which will be forever conflated in my mind with the Tom Swift books that I blazed through at about the same time) even back then. I was born in '64 so anything with rockets, rocket planes, jets, etc. was new and wonderful to me in the late 60s, early 70s, especially with a backdrop of real-world events like Apollo going on.

I couldn't even begin to say how many anime shows I've seen over the years. It seems I've been watching them since forever. I was watching things like the original Speed Racer (late 60s? early 70s?) as part of my saturday morning cartoon ritual when I was a pre-teen, and I never really stopped. It really accelerated since the 'net came along too. I try to at least start every new anime that comes out every year. I don't finish all of them to be sure, but even so we're talking maybe half a dozen per season for the past couple/few decades, plus the occasional movie. I'm sure it is several hundred by now, at least. (Even more if we include the non-japanese animated series like Space Angel, Valley of the Dinosaurs, Thundercats, Dangermouse, Pinkie and Brain, etc.)

Hmmm.. how about things like Gintama, Gurren Lagann, or Trigun? I also liked The Third.

At work I've usually got spotify going and it does throw up all sorts of game- and anime-related tunes. Today I heard Ocarina of Time from Zelda, Ichiban no Takaramono from Angel Beats!, and Heavenly Blue from Aldnoah Zero, among others. Can't say I hum much on my own though. I've been more self-conscious since that time my co-workers caught me singing along with Still Alive from Portal. Awkward!

Depends. Nothing beats a wire for speed, except maybe a fiber. My 'Net connection at home is less than 10Mbit though, so for surfing, streaming, etc. it doesn't really matter. All my mobile devices have faster wifi than my DSL modem can hope to beat. When I need to back up my laptop I plug in the gigabit ethernet cable or an external drive. Otherwise I use wifi for the portability and comfort.

If you're at all interested in space, rockets, and exploring other moons/planets then check out Kerbal Space Program. It is a "NASA sim" - engineer and build rockets, put little green astronauts called kerbals in them, and fly them to orbit and other planets. Realistic physics and engineering though, so for most people there's a pretty steep learning curve. It is rocket science. In addition to the whole, build-your-own-rocket thing, Isp, delta-v, orbital mechanics, hohmann transfers, rendezvous and docking are all part of the game. Not as bad as it sounds though, and there's lots of people streaming on youtube/twitch/etc. if you need help. There's a huge mod community too, so if you're bored with the stock game and want to put lasers and machine guns on the rockets (and planes, rovers, space stations, and Münbases, etc.) that you build, there's a mod for that. If you have a decent GPU, some of the visual mods are stunning. (Wait until you see sunrise through the clouds from orbit, or look down at the polar aurora as you fly overhead, or skim the surface of the Mún at a couple km/s. ) I don't have much time for gaming these days, but when I do, KSP is pretty much all I play. https://kerbalspaceprogram.com

Didn't do a @#$% thing at work today. We had a "global down time" for software upgrades and network maintenance. My group had just gone through the software upgrade cycle a couple weeks ago so we were good there. We're basically a data processing center though, and with the network cold and no way to get data in or out of our systems we really didn't have much to do. Rebooted a couple systems that had been up since last year (just in case). Caught up on email. Took a long lunch. Hiked across the lab to visit some people that I used to work with. This sort of thing only happens once or twice a year so I did my best to enjoy it while it lasted.

We've done this twice now at work (for a management thing) and both times I've been declared an INTJ. At least it is/I am consistent, though if I answer the "iffy" questions the other way I can flip the "N" to an "S". Our management consultant dude also appended a "-A" to the "INTJ", but I don't recall what that was for and it apparently isn't part of the MBPT canon. All that said, I have to add I question the practicality/utility of a system that classifies all of those billions of humans into only 16 personality types. ¯\(°_o)/¯ Not that it isn't a fun diversion. FWIW, I also happen to know that I'm a dragon in the eastern zodiac (any rats, monkeys, or roosters out there?), virgo in western, and my life path number is 3. I've checked most of these personality things out at one time or another.

Found this at lunch. for any Honneamise no Tsubasa / Bowie fans out there..

I've been a Crunchy "premium+" subscriber for years now. Funimation seemed to be all about dubs at the time so I went for Crunchy. Since then Crunchy has added some dubs and I understand that Funi has added (some?) subs so that's probably not the defining characteristic anymore. Funi was also into exclusives though, which I'm morally opposed to. (Hate it when the show you want is on the other network & I don't have the $$ to subscribe to everything!) I've seen a few things recently which had been Funi-exclusives however so maybe that's changing too. Crunchy's web interface is a bit clunky, but definitely serviceable (and the only way to reorder your queue easily). They also have apps for iOS, android, and roku that I use frequently. I haven't used the Wii in a while but they had a decent app for that as recently as a year or so ago as well. Crunchy also has drama shows and english translations of manga, if you're into that. There's also a message forum, a news section, and a store, none of which I'm really into. Occasionally I check the news section, but it isn't my prime source for anything. As far as anime goes though I like the service. If I had to say something bad about crunchy, my only complaint would be that they don't offer a way to view their library content offline, even with their iOS/android apps. I'd like to be able to load up a few anime episodes for viewing on a plane/etc, or watch the HD version even if I'm on a low-bandwidth link. Also, they do simulcasts and occasionally their bandwidth drops precipitously when a new episode of a popular show comes out. A couple times now I've had to come back later because their servers were overloaded, even though I'm more a binge-viewer and don't keep up with the latest-and-greatest. Sorry, I'd offer a crunchy guest pass to anyone that wanted it but I've already given mine away. If anyone's interested, let me know & I'll send you the next one when I get it. Also if you have specific questions I'd be happy to answer.

I managed to enjoy Serial Experiments Lain. I'm sure I can handle whatever Texhnolyze throws at me. Heck, some of my favorite animes I had no idea what was going on until the second half. I always give any anime a few episodes to settle down anyway. I'm a believer in the 3-episode rule.

I put that in my Crunchy list a while back. Looked interesting but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet .. other stuff keeps getting promoted over it. I'll get a round tuit someday though.

Gabriel Dropout I know the feeling, Gab. I know the feeling.....

Another BG from their "The Silmarillion"-themed "Nightfall" album. This time "Thorn", from the Eöl/Maeglin story/arc. Love the "the wisdom in us both will make it special guaranteed" bit! I hope somebody does a good movie or mini-series of this book someday, but for now these drawings aren't a bad accompaniment to the song...

Catching up on Mahoutsukai no Yome this evening. Loved this scene...

I might as well still be on dialup. Even my phone is faster! Send some my way!! I definitely need them!

Someone already mentioned Aa! Megami-sama! and Sukitte Ii na yo , .. to which I'll add Ai Yori Aoishi (especially if you liked My Goddess) and Ao Haru Ride.

I wound up liking it a lot, but I almost didn't get past the first episode! That opening was depressing af!